Chrome Central: Apple Reports 1Q 2019 Results: Nearly $20B Profit on $84.3B Revenue, Second-Best Quarter Ever Despite Earnings Warning

http://bit.ly/2AbQj95

Apple today announced financial results for its first fiscal quarter of 2019, which corresponds to the fourth calendar quarter of 2018.

For the quarter, Apple posted revenue of $84.31 billion and net quarterly profit of $19.965 billion, or $4.18 per diluted share, compared to revenue of $88.3 billion and net quarterly profit of $20.1 billion, or $3.89 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter.

The earnings report comes after Apple issued a rare warning on January 2 that revenue for the quarter would come in at least $5 billion below the company's original guidance, with Apple pointing to a number of factors including the later launch of the iPhone XR, general weakness in China, and fewer upgrades as customers took advantage of Apple's reduced pricing on battery replacements in 2018 to extend the lives of their current phones.

Even with the earnings warning, the quarter was the second-best in Apple's history in terms of revenue and profit, trailing only the first fiscal quarter of 2018.

Gross margin for the quarter was 38.0 percent, compared to 38.4 percent in the year-ago quarter, with international sales accounting for 62 percent of revenue. Apple also declared an upcoming dividend payment of $0.73 per share, payable February 14 to shareholders of record as of February 11.

This quarter also marks a change in the way Apple reports its results, as the company is no longer providing unit sales data for iPhone, iPad, and Mac. Apple argues that quarterly unit sales are not an accurate indicator of the underlying strength of Apple's business, but critics have suggested the move is an attempt to make it less obvious that Apple is making up for sagging unit sales by selling more expensive devices.

“While it was disappointing to miss our revenue guidance, we manage Apple for the long term, and this quarter’s results demonstrate that the underlying strength of our business runs deep and wide,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “Our active installed base of devices reached an all-time high of 1.4 billion in the first quarter, growing in each of our geographic segments. That’s a great testament to the satisfaction and loyalty of our customers, and it’s driving our Services business to new records thanks to our large and fast-growing ecosystem.”

Apple's guidance for the second quarter of fiscal 2019 includes expected revenue of $55-59 billion and gross margin between 37 and 38 percent. That revenue figure is near or slightly below analysts' expectation of around $59 billion. Apple's stock is currently up about 2.5 percent in after-hours trading following the release.

Apple will provide live streaming of its fiscal Q1 2019 financial results conference call at 2:00 PM Pacific, and MacRumors will update this story with coverage of the conference call highlights.

Tag: earnings

This article, "Apple Reports 1Q 2019 Results: Nearly $20B Profit on $84.3B Revenue, Second-Best Quarter Ever Despite Earnings Warning" first appeared on MacRumors.com

Discuss this article in our forums